My Weekly Spock: That Salome Shirt!!

Good Lord! I thought as I first saw this incredible shirt picture — what disco did Leonard just boogie out of? But on closer inspection, I could see that the images on the shirt are a marvelous collage of Aubrey Beardsley illustrations from the Oscar Wilde illustrated play ofSalome. The gowned image on his right (your left) elbow is a portion of a piece that lists the artwork in the book. On his left (your right) elbow is a devilish hermaphrodite. On his upper right shoulder is ‘The Climax“. These are actually some of the less graphic designs in the book, which you can see here. Beardsley could be quite bizarre, creepy and controversial, but often beautiful too. Incredible stuff.

I’m guessing this picture was taken not in the disco era, but a but earlier, say 1969-71, when there was a revival bloom in the rediscovery of Beardsley artwork (probably brought on by the Psychedelic movement). If there are any more pictures from this shoot, I’d love to see them. Leonard definitely had his own style though! Groove on!